January 20, 2004
Take that, our children's future!
I got a raise this month. According to this table, I, a not-too-glorified secretary, now make more than a starting teacher in all but the 17 top-paying states. And I'm a government employee. And you're not even supposed to have a degree to do my job.
That, my friends, is messed up. Furthermore, after living on a salary in the mid-20's (comfortably, but by no means opulently), I have to quite simply question the sanity of anyone who willingly enters the profession in, say, Iowa, where the average starting salary is $24,000, and the overall average is only 40% more than that. Especially when that profession requires a whole extra year of schooling, and all of the debt that entails for most people. We need to get over our belief in teachers as some inherently selfless breed of flawless saints and realize that we're only going to get good educators if we pay them more.
Sorry to bring up a painfully obvious point, but now that I've actually got a real job, I have a whole other frame of reference for understanding the problem.
As dictator, I promise to end the costly and ineffective War on Drugs. I will legalize and tax soft drugs like cannabis while promoting education, treatment, and general harm reduction strategies in order to reduce the use of hard drugs. Furthermore, with the money thus saved, I will create a program to fund public schools and immediately double all teacher salaries.
Without much time to really address the topic, I'll say just this: Of course I'm all for teachers getting paid better, but only if it means increased competition for the millions of positions. Many teachers get paid $24,000 a year and are worth far less. Teaching positions at the secondary level should be fought over like the last drumstick. There should be more Ph.Ds in the secondary level, more Masters of Education in the primary level, rigerous background checks, a multi-step interview process, etc. The best teachers should be rock stars.
This would have the added benefit of providing jobs for all of those over-educated, under-employed people with graduate degrees.
In short, I agree with Shah Widner's proposal. Are you in need of a Minister of Law?
Indeed, you will be useful in the New Era. Join my American Party and support us (or be destroyed).
Seriously though, I think the dearth of good teachers is largely due to the poor pay. Other than idealists, the talented, intelligent people that would make excellent teachers decide to do something else that will make them more money. Paying them better would naturally increase the competition. Of course, these are all points that have been made a billion times before, but I like to sound intelligent so here they are, parroted for your amusement and the gratification of my massive ego.
David pretty much said it for me and I say this as child of a teacher with a fiancee who started today. She is teaching 3rd grade in a school with a 99% black student body. She is excited about challenging the kids to excel but she has already encountered an attitude among the teachers that basically says "don't bother trying too hard because it won't make a difference." And the sad thing is that she may go in there and work really hard do a really good job but her salary will always be determined by number of years worked and nothing else (unless she gets a masters). There has to be some sort of merit based system if we want to find a way to increase teacher pay. But this will never happen as long as the NEA gets there way b/c they'd prefer the comfort of job security and reliable benefits to any sort of completion.
Read here for more:
http://www.affbrainwash.com/archives/009312.php
I meant to say "fiancee who started teaching today."
Hail Mallarme! Long live our party. Yesterday I spoke with someone who told me "fascism is sooooo 1936". O contrare! That kind of attitude is soooo 2000! We live in a new world, folks, and fascism is the answer for the 21st century.
As for education, yes, we absolutely need a higher base salary for teachers and greater pay raises if you stay on--that's the surest way to increase competition for teaching jobs. But taking into account piraues' point, I think some kind of bonus system for good results and superior performances is necessary as well.